Asian countries are struggling to transform themselves from cheap-labour production base to industrial growth poles. To achieve this objective, they all scramble for basic infrastructures; such as, roads, power plants, telephone lines and sewers. They must seize limited material and financial resources ahead of their neighbours. Massive infrastructure projects are already transforming much of the region and many other plans are in the pipeline. In exchange for this quick development, all countries get various kinds of environmental problems. Thailand, for instance, can afford more cars. The number of vehicles on the Bangkok streets has tripled in the last decade to 3.1 million. Land prices have increased everywhere in Thailand; many people are getting richer from the land speculation. This land speculation has already interfered with many infrastructure projects.

Asia now accounts for 13 percent of the world’s total foreign direct investment, especially in East Asia. It will post the highest rate of growth in the next century by the favourable conjunction of export-oriented growth and domestic investment. The East Asian economies then entered a new growth phase - led by huge direct investments in South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. During the 5-year period between 1985-1990, the investment figure was for instance 2.6 times in Hong Kong; 3.9 times in Singapore; 42.3 times in Malaysia; 10.5 times in Indonesia; 4.9 times in the Philippines and 16.7 times in Thailand.

Though Japan had previously exported machinery to East Asian economies, it started importing machinery from them in the 1990s. That’s because the yen’s rapid rise against the dollar made it more advantageous for Japanese companies to produce machines in Southeast Asia nations than to make them domestically. Partly because of the increasing Japanese overseas investment, Japan’s unemployment rate in March 1995 reached its highest level since 1953. Of course, there are other reasons explaining for the unemployment in Japan. The number of unemployed labour in Japan in March 1995 increased 110,000 to 2.19 million.

The role of agricultural sector seems less important after the high development of industrialisation in East Asian countries. Rural areas have now been neglected in most new industrial countries. People seem to forget the basic value of agriculture. So they exploit everything in rural areas in exchange for the growth of urban areas, which emphasises on modernisation and industrialisation. If this tendency does not slow down, what is the future of rural areas of all the countries? It is estimated that Asia in the middle of the next century will be the home of as many people as live on the whole world now. So we have to feed these people with less land, less water, less energy and less agrochemical. How do we do to increase food production by about 70 percent in the next 25 years? Another problem is about labour migration. There occurs a chained move of farmer leaders from rural areas to urban centres. How can we expect a survival of agriculture if the leadership in rural areas is not there anymore?   

The destruction of the rainforest is the most urgent problem. In recent decades humans have felled a lot of rainforest, both for timber and to clear the land for agricultural production. As the forest is destroyed, so all the plants and animals of the forest will disappear with it. Felling the rainforest causes many problems for people. The forest trees used to act like sponges, soaking up water during storms and releasing it more slowly into the atmosphere through their leaves. When the forest is gone, the rain pours down rivers, causing devastating floods. Without the trees to release water back into the air, the floods are followed by equally serious droughts. In its combination between floods and droughts, thousands of people in Asian countries are now facing a hard time in rural areas as a direct result of forest clearance.

When the rainforest is cleared, the soil left is much too poor to support farm crops or grazing animals for long. Without the trees, the soil is soon washed away by the rains, leaving behind a wet desert of little use to man. With the loss of the forests, we also lose the benefits from rainforest plants. The cutting-down of rainforest has also made many animals and plants in the forest extinct. The desire for short-term financial gain by exploiting the natural resources of the world is still seen as more important than the long-term need to protect environment

A forest is a community of trees, shrubs, herbs, microorganisms, and animals. The inhabitants of forest communities interact in complex ways. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and extract moisture from the soil. Trees help to retain water; heavy rains do not run rapidly off forestland. Natural or human activities that destroy forests result in increased runoff and in temporarily higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Trees also keep mineral nutrients in ecosystem; these nutrients accumulate in tree roots and thus are not easily washed away. Unfortunately, forests have been overused for consumptive purposes throughout the world, not only in Asia. The development had led to deforestation under pressures of increasing population.

Today many rivers have never reached the sea. They have been diverted and siphoned off on upstream for a variety of uses. The flood that we experience now is because of an unusually heavy year of rainfall. The Yellow River in China, which earned the reputation as China’s Sorrow because of its frequent flooding, is now dry near its mouth during the dry season. In an effort to tame and use the rivers’ flow, governments of many countries like to build large dams. Through this method, they think they can control water supply. There were more than 5,000 large dams in the world in 1950. Now we have 38,000 dams today.

In the next generations, more water will be shifted toward cities. That creates another problem because we have to grow more food for more people. If we have water scarcity, how are we going to grow that much food? Demands for water will continue to increase sharply, whereas the development of water resources has come to the limit. The pumping of ground water causes land subsidence; so there will be more restriction on the use of ground water in the future. Under these tight circumstances, it has been necessary to promote the economical use of water. The recycling of water for reuse must be considered seriously in the very near future. This is also an effective way to control the total amount of wastewater.  

Forest after forest has been cut down indiscriminately, inviting disaster, and even the beautiful forests in national parks have been suffering. Beaches with white sand and green trees have everywhere been reclaimed in order to construct industrial complexes. Today, natural beaches account for very low percentage of the national coastline. The Seto Inland Sea Natural Park in Japan, for example, used to be well known for its being small and full of natural splendours islands, is now crowded with industrial, coastal zones, and 60 percent of its coastline has been covered with concrete. The same things have been occurring in most of our cities in NIC’s as in Thailand, Taiwan, and China, where traditional rivers have been reclaimed to construct buildings and roads. In Tokyo Metropolis, a total of 22 rivers and 16 ponds have disappeared since the beginning of the period of high economic growth. Together with waterfronts, green areas have decreased as well.  

In the northernmost parts of Thailand, forest areas have been much destroyed and invaded since the start of economic development in 1961, especially during the last government (1993-1995). Villagers to intentionally degenerate the areas and they later claim "land utilisation certificates" from the government and put some grown-up forests on fire. Recently in January 1996, record disafforestation damage was found in Suratthani province down south of Thailand. There was strong evidence that many politicians were involved in this scandal. In China, some 1,560 sq.km of land was deforested yearly between the 1950s and 1970s. Deforested land widened to an average of some 2,100 sq.km annually in the 1980s and continues to grow in this decade.

In the Philippines, urban development and tourism have forced local residents into becoming squatters in the mountain areas. Illegal farming in the forests is the only possible measure for them to make a living. These squatters are said to have received protection and a kind of informal farming stewardship from influential local agents. The forests in the Philippines have thus encountered high risk of degradation by uncontrolled activities of squatters, indigenous residents, and tourism development. The squatters’ slash-and-burn agriculture will bring about significant deterioration of the forest resources.

A kind of industrial exploitation is the cutting-down of tropical rainforests for the sake of the wood products. In this regard, Japan is very often implicated because of the large volume of timber products she imports. The tropical rain forests of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia are being cut away at a rapidly accelerating pace and the high-grade timber is being shipped to Japan. Regeneration of tropical rain forests is impossible and very little effort is invested in attempts to recover destroyed forests. After trees have been cut down, the sparse topsoil on the forest floor is washed away or becomes a hard, laterite surface under the influence of strong sunlight and high temperatures. 

Urban people have called for the renewal of forests in Southeast Asia and other regions. If much land is reserved for forests, rural people have limited land for agricultural production, which is not enough for a subsistence living. If forestations projects meet stiff resistance from local people, they are unlikely to succeed. Although afforestation efforts may be motivated by an admirable desire to protect the global environment, we must realise that if such activities are promoted without reference to the needs of local people, we run the risk of forcing the present generation of impoverished people in the developing countries to bear the cost of protecting the interests of future generations.  

Mangroves are trees that are growing in shallow and muddy salt water or brackish waters, especially along quiet shorelines and in estuaries. In Southeast Asia, the mangrove forests are normally regarded as public lands. So the deforestation of mangroves has been extensive in all areas of Southeast Asia resulting either from the release of pollutants or fish culture projects. The mangrove forest provides a secure nesting area for many bird species, in addition to its vital role in the food chain as bountiful provider of organic nutrients. The roots of the mangrove tree are tangled webs of such complexity that they intertwine just below the surface of the shallow coastal waters, and as such form ideal ecosystems for the breeding of fish and the growth of plankton. When these ecosystems are destroyed through mangrove deforestation, coastal fisheries gradually decline owing to the loss of fish resources. This systemic loss of mangrove forests has come to be recognised, along with over fishing, as the main causes of a decline in the fishing industry to mere subsistence levels on the seashores.

Shrimp is the common of crustaceans. The larger forms are referred to as prawns. Shrimps are predominantly marine; although several families can be now cultured in brackish waters. That is why shrimp cultures must be on the shallow coastal seawaters. And that is the area of coastal mangrove forests. The most favoured prawn in the world is Jumbo Tiger prawn, which is one of the most popular species in Japan. I remember that when I first came to Japan in 1980, tempura was not an ordinary food for anybody; it was served only in a certain high-price restaurant. Now tempura food is found everywhere and you can have it at a very low price. These prawns are mostly imported from Thailand at the expense of mangrove deforestation at an accelerating rate.

The business of shrimp culture in Thailand has been very successful starting with a culture area of only 8,000 ha in 1986 to more than 80,000 ha at the present time. Thailand’s product of Jumbo Tiger prawn in 1994 was up to 248,000 tons which made Thailand the world leader of the shrimp producer for the fourth consecutive year with the corresponding foreign exchange earnings over 2,000 million US猤. In 1996, it was estimated that the product of Jumbo Tiger prawn would be up to 300,000 tons. In expense for this success in terms of foreign exchange earnings, Thailand, as other Asian neighbouring nations, has already lost a lot of its mangrove forest areas.

An extensive shrimp farming method has released much polluted substances to nature. The farmers pump pond water, heavily polluted with shrimp excreta and chemicals, back into the mangrove forests. Then the shrimp farm moves on and on from the central to the eastern regions and now comes to the southern part which will become the last sites for shrimp culture of Thailand. The Thai government is promoting the intensive farming method, which can control the pollution discharge. The new method has increased due to more limited resource of fresh water supply.

Soon enough, Thailand would follow the same destiny of their neighbours. Taiwan used to produce 100,000 tons of shrimp in 1987 but only one year later the production drastically decreased to only 20,000 tons with polluted seawater along its seashores. The same case happened to China when the shrimp product decreased 80 percent in 1992 also from heavy industrialisation along the seashores. After Thailand, Indonesia should be the next victim of this seashore pollution. Indonesia has much longer seashores about 20 times that of Thailand aside from many other supporting factors such as production cost, labour cost and animal feed which are all lower than that of Thailand.

When most seashore in Thailand are too polluted for shrimp culture, they move to neighbouring countries. Koh Kong in Cambodia is an example of this move. The shrimp industry in Cambodia was monopolised by big businessmen from Thailand. Cambodians have only nominal ownership, the farms are actually managed and funded by Thais. The shrimp harvest is also mainly sold to Thais.

More than 500 hectares of mangrove forest had been illegally cleared despite its classification as “forest reservation.” The pursuit of quick money has resulted in the increased destruction of the mangroves in Cambodia.

When it rains, some water is retained in the soil, some is absorbed by vegetation, some evaporates, and the remainder is called runoff. Floods occur when soil and vegetation cannot absorb all the water; water then runs off the land quickly in much quantity along stream channels or retained in natural ponds and constructed reservoirs. Floods not only damage property and endanger the lives of humans and animals, but have other effects as well. Rapid runoff causes soil erosion as well as sediment deposition problems downstream. Spawning grounds for fish and other wildlife habitat are often destroyed. High-velocity currents increase flood damage; prolonged high floods delay traffic and interfere with drainage and economic use of lands. Financial losses due to floods are usually high.

Massive illegal logging was found everywhere in Thailand. During the last decade, many forests have been destroyed in the upper north of Thailand. This forest area just happens to become the watershed of the central part of Thailand where the capital is located. When the northern forests became barren lands, flooding started to occur more and more seriously year by year. Last year’s disastrous flooding occurred nation-wide in Thailand especially the northern and central parts, which are actually in the same watershed. Bangkok was most damaged last year (1995) and huge budget was needed for the reconstruction. On the whole, flooding will become more frequent from now on. Last year it was estimated that the ill effects of this record flood that seriously damaged about 1.6 million ha of farmland all over the country.  

Acid Rain is a form of air pollution. It is formed in industrial zones in cities but has a direct impact upon rural areas. It forms when oxides of sulphur and nitrogen combine with atmospheric moisture to yield sulphuric and nitric acids, which may then be carried long distances from their source before they are deposited by rain. The pollution may also take the form of snow or fog or be precipitated in dry forms. Acid rain, if occurred, has eroded structures, injured crops and forests, and threatened or depleted life in freshwater lakes. In 1984, for example, environmental reports indicated that almost half of the trees in Germany's Black Forest had been damaged by acid rain. Industrial emissions have been blamed as the major cause of acid rain.

China, for instance, has achieved double-digit economic growth for several consecutive years; but its booming economy and indiscreet development, especially in rural areas, coupled with continued population growth, have caused severe damage to the environment. Acid rain is one of them. Already Chinese cities have suffered from acid rain, blamed on the increased discharge of sulphur dioxide. As the number of autos and exhaust fumes rise sharply, air pollution has further deteriorated in China.  

Groundwater is the largest reserve of drinkable water in regions where humans can live. Groundwater may appear at the surface in the form of springs, or it may be tapped by wells. During dry periods it can also sustain the flow of surface water, and even where the latter is readily available, groundwater is often preferable because it tends to be less contaminated by wastes and organisms. Although groundwater is less contaminated than surface waters, pollution of this major water supply has become an increasing alarm in industrialised nations. In the United States, many thousands of wells have been closed in the late 20th century because of contamination by various toxic substances.

Landfill is the cheapest means of garbage disposal in newly industrial countries. Landfill is by no means in the rural areas. In most cases, there is no control of pollution on land surface or in groundwater in the landfill site. This practice is easily found along the highways in rural Thailand. There is no sanitary landfill as in industrial nations. In a modern landfill, pollution of surface and groundwater is minimised by lining and contouring the fill, compacting and planting the cover, selecting proper soil, diverting upland drainage, and placing wastes in sites not subject to flooding or high groundwater levels.  

Chemical fertiliser is utilised to increase agricultural production. Although, chemical fertiliser has helped increase crop production to feed the growing world population, its large proportion is washed into lakes, streams and rivers where it knocks the natural system out of balance, killing many water creatures. Dangerous chemicals are sprayed onto field to kill pests or control weeds. The pesticides cause massive damage to the nature. It is unfortunate that pests have learned to adjust themselves with the pesticides and the pesticides kill many natural enemies of the pests instead, such as spiders and bees. As a result, the damage to crops got worse. When poisonous chemicals are washed into the soil and water, they have a chance to build up in the bodies of humans and animals.

In Thailand, the major rice production increased 17.2 percent while the use of chemical fertiliser increased 90.6 percent during 1981-1990, which made an average yield of major rice increase only 10 percent during the same period. This proves that the use of chemical fertiliser is already an economic waste. Within this mentioned period, the amounts of insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides used on farms increased several times higher. As regards its damage to the nature, we found in a village of Northeast Thailand that a well for domestic use is seriously contaminated with phosphate. If one well is dirty, thousands of wells could be dirty too.

While several pesticides have been taken off of the market in the industrialised nations because of their hazardous effects, many of these banned chemicals are still used today by farmers in Asian nations. Should we control the use of dangerous pesticides and help rice farmers to increase the natural enemies, such as spiders, bees, and insect-eating birds, the pests should be soon gone. Many farmers in Asia have probably developed diseases related to the intensive use of these dangerous chemicals.  

Cassava is a staple food crop of a few countries in Asia; namely, Thailand and Indonesia. It tolerates drought and low soil fertility. Therefore, it is suitable for poor farmers with poor soils and unfavourable climates. Cassava is grown most in Northeast Thailand and the end use is mostly for animal feed. The huge quantities of which are exported to Europe as cheap cattle and pig feed. This export to Europe has been in exchange for the destruction of 31.25 million rai (five million hectares) of forest in Thailand.

One pollution it causes is the high deterioration in soil after harvest. Another pollution occurs in its processing into food products; namely, tapioca chips, tapioca flour, and tapioca pellets. It causes intensive white dust around factory areas. And because they have to use a lot of water in processing, tapioca factories cause high water pollution also in rural areas. If the factories stay close to villages, rural health is serious. The problem is made worse because factories are often on poor, sandy soils where polluted waste and water can seep through the ground to pollute ground water. A farmer as an individual cannot negotiate anything but accepting their poor destiny. Farmers’ organisations are weak in Thailand. The government policy is only interested in moneymaking than the welfare of small farmers.  

Nominal GNP per capita for the Japanese is over US$ 38,000 in 1995, which is the second largest in the world, seconds only to Switzerland. The third largest is that of the United States of only US$ 2,600. The rapid rate of urbanisation in Japan drew such large numbers from farms to the cities. The push factor in this rapid urbanisation process was the revolutionary change in agriculture - mechanisation and scientific processes to produce better yields - that no longer made a large farming population necessary. The pull factor was the concentration of economic and industrial activity in urban centres.

Owing to rapid urbanisation, river waters in Tokyo became polluted. The sewers and sewage treatment plants were then constructed. However the amount of sludge from the treatment plants is increasing to become a big urban problem now, not to mention other environmental pollutions. In Agricultural areas, they have soil pollution problem. The Environmental Quality Standards for Soil were formulated in accordance with the Basic Law for Environmental Pollution Control, as the standards to protect human health and conserve the living environment.

The standards are basically applicable to all kinds of soil, including that for farmland. In formulating the standards, the Japanese focus on conserving two main functions: one is water purification and groundwater cultivation; another producing food. Along with an increased use of agricultural chemicals after the War, the pollution of food and the environment with highly toxic or persistent agricultural chemicals became a serious social problem. It is necessary to properly assess those safeties and control them in order that they do not cause adverse effects to human health and the environment. Now in Japan, in order to prevent pollution by agricultural chemicals, any agricultural chemical shall be registered for sale through inspection on the persistency, toxicity, etc. under the Law.

There are some 125.4 million people in Japan in 1995. Some 80 percent of which are living in regions classified as urban areas. In this regard, rural population becomes a minority group of Japan. This condition is unlike that of other Asian countries where there are still plenty of farmers in rural areas. Population growth rate in Japan is now only 0.2 percent due to several effective measures to control population growth. There was a radical shift from the extended to the nuclear family, relatively late marriage, and modern birth control practices. These helped to minimise the problem of population explosion. Then all the economic gains are supposed to go more for the newly born population.

The ratio of people per doctor in Japan is only 566, compared to 4,361 in Thailand and 6,786 in Indonesia or 12,500 in Myanmar. I suppose therefore that there is no health problem in rural communities in Japan. However, there is instead the problem of old people in Japan. Japan is at the present time the world’s longest life spans. One in 10 Japanese is beyond the age of 65, and the government estimates that by 2018 one in four will have crossed that threshold. To my opinion, even being a rich country, Japan still has economic obligations for the old people. Some 6.1 salaried workers support one pensioner now; that number will plunge to 2.4 by 2025. The national age-based seniority system could have problems in the future.  

Since early 1960s, Korea has been experiencing rapid economic growth with an average annual GNP growth rate of almost 10 percent, second only to China. Nominal GNP per capita in 1995 exceeds US猤8,550 becoming the 16th largest in the world. Korea is attempting to achieve industrialisation in less than half a century while Western Europe spent about 200 years to complete the transition from an agrarian society to an industrialised economy and Japan did it in almost 100 years. Korea faces air pollution problem with the expansion of energy consumption caused by industrialisation and the concentration of population in urban areas.

A heavy emphasis on economic expansion has generated some conflicts and confusions in the society, which has produced unplanned side effects and consequences. The deterioration of the environment is one such consequence. Air pollution by sulphur dioxide became a grave issue particularly in major cities. The Korean government has implemented measures to encourage the use of oil containing less sulphur and LPG in major cities since 1981 with some success. Due to rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, waste water from factories and other facilities have greatly increased in Korea about 20 percent a year. In the survey conducted in 1989, only 25 percent of the total volume of wastewater was treated. In some districts, even the tap water is polluted by heavy metals and other pollutants and found unsuitable for drinking water. Municipal solid waste is steadily increasing in quantity. The coastal seas near major harbours and estuaries on the western coast of Korea are seriously polluted compared with other seas. The Koreans are beginning to question if they really benefit from economic growth. The idea of sustainable development has rapidly spread to the public in Korea.  

China has achieved double-digit economic growth for the past three consecutive years and has emerged as a major trading nation. Its booming economy and improper development, especially in rural areas, coupled with continued population growth, have caused severe and worsening damage to the environment. China relies on coal for nearly 80 percent of its energy sources. Sulphur dioxide, dust and soot from coal combustion have become a grave issue. As coal consumption rises, more and more Chinese cities suffer from acid rain because of the increased discharge of sulphur dioxide. With more autos and exhaust fumes, air pollution in China has further deteriorated. Most probably this kind of polluted sky in China has much connection with acid rain in Japan.

As for water supply, it is expected that the future growth in water demand will outpace supplies soon. Already much of the population does not have access to potable water. There are less than 10 percent of sewage, which receives proper treatment. Wastewater increasingly contaminates Chinese rivers; sewage disposal plants operating in some 70 sites are capable of processing only 2 percent of the country’s total wastewater. Public water supplies have been closed off eight times in the past seven years to allow severe water pollution spawned by factories to pass downriver.  

Some 1,560 sq.km of land was deforested yearly between the 1950s and the 1970s. Deforested land widened to an average of some 2,100 sq.km annually in the 1980s and continues to grow in this decade. About one-fifth of agricultural land has been lost to soil erosion since 1957 and economic development.  

Malaysia also places a high priority on economic development. The economy expanded considerably especially during the 1970s and the 1980s. Rubber and tin no longer dominated the economy and by the end of 1990, the manufacturing sector accounted for 27 percent of the GDP compared to about 14 percent in 1970. Economic policies placed stronger emphasis on growth, structural adjustments and the liberalisation of the economy. Privatisation was given strong emphasis.

Malaysia officially generates about 417,000 tonnes of non-toxic and toxic industrial waste each year. More than 125,000 tonnes of dangerous waste products have accumulated in warehouses and other storage sites in the country between 1987 and 1994. As a result, Malaysia urgently needs a waste-treatment facility. This treatment cost will be an additional burden on private sector. The idea is therefore not popular among business sector because they may lose the comparative advantage to neighbouring countries. Rubber and palm-oil estates, for instance, produce a lot of waste and treatment costs; so they might erode the competitiveness of Malaysia’s plantation sector.

Malaysia faces problems of air pollution from industrial and vehicular emissions; water pollution from raw sewage. Organic matter largely due to industrial and domestic discharges seriously polluted four rivers in Malaysia. Heavy metals pollution is increasingly becoming a problem especially for rivers in the West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Malaysia has no problems of deforestation and flooding. If tree crops such as rubber and oil palm are included, the total percentage of forest areas for Malaysia is about 74.2 percent. This high figure compares favourably with those of other Asian countries. However, forest areas started to decline considerably these days through land development projects. The construction of dams, mining, logging and shifting cultivation is the most significant explanation.  

Vietnam already joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the middle of 1995. Vietnam is now under its 10-year program of economic reform, known as doi moi. The country has achieved consecutive economic growth exceeding 8 percent over the last three years. This economic reform has resulted in two distortions; (1) the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor and (2) the spread of corruption. Vietnam’s per-capita gross national product was 猤220 in 1995, still lagging behind many neighbouring Asean countries such as Malaysia (猤3,530), Thailand (猤2,315), the Philippines (猤1,010) and Indonesia (猤780). As Vietnam shakes off central planning and takes the capitalist road, the gap between large cities and farm villages, and between the rich and the poor, has steadily widened.  

Despite overall economic success in recent years, Vietnam faces an employment crisis that is likely to get worse as free-market reforms spread. Vietnam undertakes the painful transition from a state-controlled economy to a market economy. Changing from state enterprise to private enterprise, there are about 1.5 million workers who have lost their jobs. In the same period, over one million soldiers were demobilised, 200,000 workers returned home from former Soviet-bloc countries and 65,000 refugees and asylum seekers were repatriated from camps in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. With over one million young Vietnamese entering the work force each year, an annual economic growth rate of around 10 percent had to be maintained just to absorb the new entrants.  

Migrant peasants in big cities keep on increasing every day. Half of all Vietnamese live below the World Bank poverty standard of 猤100 a year. Some 90 percent of the poor live in the rural areas, where the typical annual income of about 猤20 is too low to stay alive. Chronic malnutrition is more common than anywhere else in Asia. This poverty has resulted in an increase in the number of children dropping out of school about 1.5 million a year. In a report on Vietnam released early this year, the World Bank warned the country that its education had sharply declined both in terms of quality and quantity over the past decade. Education used to be free of charge. Now the Vietnamese have to pay for education themselves.  

Vietnam has received a lot of international supports in terms of aid and foreign investment money from abroad; but some 70 percent of these resources go to four main cities of Vietnam. Rural areas thus remain desperate. Even if development money trickles down to the local level, it will go to the elite or is mismanaged somewhere or somehow. Vietnam should spend its money more on education, social services and basic infrastructure like roads and water. Already the donors made it clear that they want more aid going to the provinces and more participation.  

Rural environment is also a serious issue in Vietnam. Logging and slash-and-burn agricultural practices are contributing to deforestation; soil degradation; water pollution and overfishing threatening marine life. There are inadequate supplies of potable water because of groundwater contamination. There are occasional typhoons (May to January) with extensive flooding.  

Bangladesh have the same destiny as other Asian countries. Maybe it is even worse because there are natural hazards including droughts, cyclones; much of the country routinely flooded during the summer monsoon season. Many people are landless and forced to live on and cultivate flood-prone land. There is a limited access to potable water; water-borne diseases prevalent. Water pollution especially of fishing areas results from the use of commercial pesticides. There are intermittent water shortages because of falling water tables in the northern and central parts of the country. Other rural environment problems include soil degradation, deforestation and severe overpopulation.  

Owing to these hardships, every family in Bangladesh has to fight for its living. Child labour is, for example, found most noticeably in clothing industry. Females less than 15 years old, considered child labourers under Bangladeshi law, work in 2,000 garment factories. To abolish child labour in the garment industry threatens the welfare of thousands of families whose children are losing their jobs. With 50,000 child workers already laid off because importers refuse to buy clothes made by workers less than 15 years old, families of the child labour face uncertain futures.  

Since 1961, Thailand has achieved economic development that boasts an average annual growth rate of over 7 percent. The annual growth rate for the period of the Sixth five-year Plan (1987-91) recorded an annual growth rate of 10.5 percent. The factors behind this high economic growth were exports, investment, and tourism. During the developing period, the industrial structure underwent a sudden change. Thailand transformed itself from a primary product exporting country to a manufactured product exporting country. The share that manufactured products accounted for in total exports surpassed that of agricultural products in 1985 and by 1991 had grown to 76.2 percent.  

Now Thailand has become a newly industrialised country. However, prosperity is well-recognised only in urban areas especially in Bangkok. The income distribution in different regions is highly unfair. With more prosperity in cities, poverty can be seen everywhere in rural areas. The household income per capita by region in 1995 is as follows: North 22,305 baht, Northeast 16,680, Central 29,811, South 26,206, Bangkok 76,480 and whole kingdom 30,369. Over the period of twenty years, the poorest 20 percent shared are down from 6 percent to 4 percent. The richest 20 percent shared 57 percent of total income, compared to 47 percent over the same period. No wonder, these 20 percent of the poorest are in rural areas. Industrial pollution is a particularly big problem in the capital. Over 50 percent of all the factories in the country are located in Greater Bangkok and these factories discharge 75 percent of the nation’s industrial waste. The manufacturing industry is the largest polluter and accounts for 90 percent of the total. Pollution-producing factories are unfortunately increased day by day.  

Air pollution is also caused largely by industry (manufacturing, construction and mining). The fuel used at factories is particularly the coal and brown coal that accounts for 15 percent of the total. The percentage of brown coal used in thermopower generation will increase further in the future, burdening the environment even more. In transportation, the price of diesel oil for industrial use has been held down relative to the price of gasoline. Diesel oil emits large amounts of nitrogen oxide. The main lawbreaker responsible for air pollution in Bangkok area is the automobile.  

Water pollution has become serious for a long time in Thailand. Upstream, midstream, and downstream of the Chao Phraya River are rated 2,3, and 4, respectively, in terms of the water type environmental standard. But none of these areas meets the standard for dissolved oxygen (DD) with most serious pollution in the downstream area. Because we have inadequate sewer system and waste treatment facilities, untreated dirty water flows into the canals, making them so polluted that they can sustain no living creatures.  

Factories used to be the main source of pollution in the Chao Phraya River, which passes through Bangkok. The obligatory installation of wastewater treatment equipment brought about little improvement. Most small- and medium-sized factories do not have enough funds to afford waste treatment equipment. In addition, because of a shortage of officers to inspect factories, treatment equipment is often operating only when an inspector makes a visit. There are about 20,000 factories causing water pollution, and the industry types that cause the most pollution are food processing, distilling, paper/pulp, rubber products, tanning, etc. The Phoenix Paper/pulp Company located in Northeast Thailand used to be ordered to halt operations for six months because it discharged hazardous waste into rivers and caused much damage to the fresh water fishing in rivers. Agricultural waste and agricultural chemicals are also causing pollution to a certain extent in Thailand.  

Rural Sickness in Thailand 

When income in rural areas is below subsistence level, rural people migrate at any chance to work in urban areas especially in Bangkok. If they have young children, they will leave them at home to be brought up by grandfather and grandmother. Usually the migrants are supposed to send money home. But in several cases they don’t because their income earned in urban areas is too low to support even themselves. Small children in villages are therefore fed with low nutrition food; such as sticky rice with chilli. There are no milk, no vegetables and no fruits. This is the basic sickness of the rural poor in Thailand.  

There is a strange mental sickness among villagers; they are asleep to death. The doctor says that it is something concerned with metabolic problem. This strange sickness also occurred to workers overseas as one time when a number of Thai workers fell asleep to death in Singapore. According to many universities and government offices, the low potassium in blood causes metabolic problem and there has been no practical solution so far. An uncountable number of the male labourers from rural areas are found addicted to amphetamines. Many factories producing amphetamines are mostly in the central and northern parts of Thailand and they said that men behind the back are all politicians in the parliament. Due to their poverty, many young females from rural areas are brought into sex business. The social costs are the rapid spread of AIDS's. According to the new anti-prostitution laws, men patronising prostitutes who are less than 18 years old will be subject to fines and imprisonment of one to six years. The penalties faced by the prostitutes will be lessened. The intent is to “view prostitutes as victims, rather than as criminals.”  

The major cause of ill health and suffering in rural Thailand is the poverty. It is the underlying cause of reduced life expectancy, inefficiency, disability and starvation. Poverty is a major contributor to mental illness, stress, and family disintegration. Malnutrition is found among many young children in rural areas. If you make a sudden visit of a village in Northeast Thailand during their mealtime, you may probably find that the food for adults and young children is the same. A few year old bady can eat chilli. If a villager gets sick, he first turns to traditional medicine, household or quack remedies. In worst circumstance, he comes to hospital in town, which is sometimes very far from his village. It is a very complicating arrangement because he has to rent a private car from his neighbour. If the village is very poor, there is not a single car available in village. He then has to wait for a miracle.   

When industrial pollution was strictly controlled in more advanced countries, their business enterprises responsible for pollution began to move into the countries of less environmental control. This is a kind of an export of environmental pollution. However, big problem comes from an importation of wastes from abroad. Tons of toxic and household waste generated in the advanced countries is believed to have been exported to Asia for disposal in recent years. In China, much of the toxic cargo slips past customs under the guise of clean, recyclable materials. In Indonesia, imports of plastic wastes increased dramatically from about 290,000 tons in 1990 to 510,000 tons in 1992. In Thailand and India, there are lead battery recycling plants by the support of foreign companies. Young boys wearing no mask or protective clothing have to work many hours a day breaking up old batteries in these plants. In Thailand, all the areas surrounding these plants revealed the samples all contained high levels of lead and manganese.  

For many countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, hazardous waste is a main source of family revenue. If closing down these plants, there occurs an unemployment problem. For the Asian governments, it seems all right as long as it generates jobs. Unfortunately, those workers involved in these dangerous plants are mostly from rural areas. It is reported that over 10 million tons of toxic waste in the form of industrial affluence, chemical by-products, plastics, used batteries and even radioactive substances have been exported to Asia since 1990. All these wastes have to be abolished at a much higher cost in their own countries.  

In the near future, the farming industry is to be increasingly emphasised on sustainable agriculture. Not only will this increase productivity, so it will protect the environment. While the contemporary farming approach is to use the land to the maximum output, the new sustainable farming approach is to take care of the cultivation land, then its output will be accordingly good. Sustainable agriculture avoids using dangerous chemicals; instead it uses a wide variety of alternative, non-toxic pest controls. Sustainable agriculture upkeep the plants and insects that naturally defend against unwanted pests and weeds. This practice will make villagers healthier.  

The natural farmer of Japan is Masanobu Fukuoka. After some 50 years in his fields in Ehime Prefecture, he is successful in introducing the well-known natural farming method. Natural farming in its final form involves no plowing, weeding, pesticides, chemical fertilisers, nor even pruning in producing grains vegetables, beans and fruits. Of course, this new practice must be under the strong protest of the agricultural authorities and industries manufacturing pesticides, weed killers and farming equipment.  

We may have a kind of mutual-help co-operative organisation set up which can support farmer-group activities. The agricultural Co-operatives are very successful in Japan; so the Japanese are in a strong position to support the same organisations in other Asian nations.  

In connection with environmental control in farm areas, the agricultural Co-operative should provide the following guidelines to members as follows:  

1. To do a voluntary self-assessment of the farmers’ own operations;  

2. To identify environmental problems;  

3. To take a collective action to solve problems;  

4. To exchange farming experiences which are environmentally sound;  

5. To gather case histories of successful farmers as model farmers;  

6. To promote an active participation from farmer members to propose countermeasure policies against unfair farm policies. 

Japan should be a good model example for all Asian nations. After all these years, we are all following her development path all through the way. However, Japan cannot yet be a good model for sustainable development unless she stops taking advantage of environmental destruction in other Asian countries; for instance, the destruction of rainforests in Southeast Asia. In addition, she needs to extend not only financial and technical assistance but also to change its national policy for more viable world societies. Since Japan controls international lending agencies with its strong financial power, she can control the channel of international loans, upon which environmental aspects should be the most important requirement.

          I hope that this paper will be of some benefit to the audience of this Congress of Agricultural Medicine and Rural Health. Thank you very much.